Happy Monday! Thank you for the lovely letters I got this week. They made my day. Replies will be forthcoming. ママコ (Mamako - Margaret's Japanese grandma) and パパコ(Papako - Margaret's Japanese grandpa) sent me two big boxes with all my winter coats and a lot of vegetables from the garden (that I don't really know how to cook), so there will be lots of experimental cooking to come. Also, thank you お母さん (okaasan - Margaret's mom) for the package! I adore the shirt and have missed oatmeal more than you could EVER imagine, really. I am constantly reminded of how American I am when I get up in the morning and all I want to eat is a big bowl of Life cereal and Quaker oats.
This week we had our first meeting as a district since transfers, and man. It is going to be interesting. There are seven of us, and we are on transfers 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 4, 5. So basically almost none of us have any experience. I got recruited to translate the meeting (not because I'm good but out of desperation) since our district leader mostly just speaks Japanese. I felt sort of bad since the majority of the district was at the mercy of my non-extensive Japanese vocabulary, but it was super good practice (at making up stuff) nonetheless.
Probably my favorite non-lesson this week was when we stopped by a sort-of investigator's beauty salon / house. We tried to share a message, but before I knew it she was making us drink noni juice (not good) and was lecturing us on how kanji and Hebrew are related. Then she started rubbing the noni juice in her hair and eyeballs and told us how she uses it on all her clients. She's pretty cool.
This week we taught one of our investigators who told us she's trying to quit drinking coffee. I wanted to be supportive or something so I made Sister Christensen and I commit to give up chocolate and peanut butter for the week. I know that's not a real even bargain since she's giving up coffee FOREVER but we just met her again today, and so far so good! She has so much faith and knows this gospel can bless her family so much. She tells us how she sits in her girls' bedroom late at night reading the Book of Mormon with a flashlight just to find some peace. She always makes me reconsider what this gospel means to me personally and how life just wouldn't be worth it without it. Sacrifice brings blessings.
Sorry this is kind of long. And ranty.
But it was a good week. Sister Christensen and I still get lost (2 hours to get to a members' house that was 15 minutes away--kanji will be the death of me). And we still don't really know how to train each other. But the Church is still true!
LOVE YOU ALL.
Margaret
From one of my dearest friends out in Bosnia:
"The greatest miracles I see today are not necessarily the healing of sick bodies, but the greatest miracles are the healing of sick souls."
-Harold B. Lee
Pic 1: Sometimes I feel like a narcissist when I send so many pictures of myself, but I thought it was kind of interesting.
Life).
Pic 3: We were leaving a lesson and these little boys followed us to the eki. I felt like Wendy and the lost boys or something.
(Monday, September 30, 2013)
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